A blog about EKU's best video gamers.

Month: June 2017

With the announcement of the SNES Classic, I feel it’s only a matter of time until Nintendo releases a version for their first 3-D game system, the Nintendo 64.

I remember growing up that the N64 was the first game system I specifically asked for Christmas. I have so many fond memories with it, even if my library growing up only consisted of about 7 games total. Nowadays, my library has grown to 3 times that, but I feel that there are a plethora of games that I haven’t tried.

That’s what I love the most about the NES and SNES Classics: they allow gamers to finally try games without resorting to emulators. With the SNES Classic, I can finally give games like Earthbound, Super Mario Kart, and Secret of Mana a try. That’s what I’m looking forward to the most if Nintendo announces a N64 Classic console.

Of course, there are some things that probably won’t happen. A large chunk of great games on the system came from Rare, and since Microsoft bought out Rare in 2002, it’s more than likely we won’t see some games such as the Banjo-Kazooie titles, or other hits such as Killer Instinct Gold, Jet Force Gemini, or Goldeneye: 007.

However, that’s what I think. Nintendo still owns the property of the Donkey Kong games despite those being made by Rare, so we’ll likely see Donkey Kong 64 and Diddy Kong Racing. Hell, maybe Nintendo could strike a deal with Microsoft to include these games after all. Xbox’s president Phil Spencer said he was all for putting Banjo in Super Smash Bros 4, so it’s not unlikely that he’d be willing to negotiate this.

There’s also the issue with hardware that came with the system; in particular, the memory expansion, the Rumble Pak, and the Transfer Pak. The memory expansion was required for certain games to work such as Donkey Kong 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. Chances are that a N64 Classic would have this built in from the get-go, but the Rumble and Transfer Paks were not as essential; the former would vibrate the controller in response to certain stimuli in the games, while the Transfer Pak allowed certain games to interact with Game Boy/Game Boy Color games, perhaps most famously with the Pokémon Stadium series.

But with all that in mind, here’s what I think will happen: Nintendo will announce this, say that it comes with a memory expansion, and it will be compatible with the Rumble and Transfer Paks. Nintendo will reach out to Microsoft, who will respectfully deny Nintendo the use of some games. The console will release with 15 games. Here’s my predictions for what games will be on it.

Super Mario 64

Mario Kart 64

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask

Super Smash Bros.

Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards

Pokémon Stadium 2

Star Fox 64

Mario Party 2 or 3

Donkey Kong 64

Diddy Kong Racing

Paper Mario

Pokémon SNAP

Mario Tennis

F-Zero X

That being said, if Microsoft does give the thumbs up to Nintendo to use Rare games, then replace the last 3 with Goldeneye: 007, Banjo-Kazooie, and for the hell of it, Conker’s Bad Fur Day.

Do you think Nintendo will make a N64 Classic? If so, what games do you hope to see on it?

With the success of the NES Classic- a console with a select handful of hit Nintendo Entertainment System games such as the Super Mario Bros NES trilogy, Super Contra, Kirby’s Adventure, and Metroid- Nintendo has decided to double down and announce the SNES Classic.

It’s the same concept- a handful of hit games for the 16-bit era on a miniature Super Nintendo, complete with HDMI support- but there are a few key differences. For one, there are only 21 games included instead of 30. Some of those games include F-Zero, Super Mario World, Final Fantasy VI, Megaman X, and Street Fighter II Turbo. However, the system also comes with the never-before-released Star Fox 2!

Yes, there was a SNES sequel to Star Fox, but it was cancelled at the last minute to focus the company’s resources on the Nintendo 64, which led to the next Star Fox game to be Star Fox 64. There are Star Fox 2 ROM’s floating around the internet, but these are all alpha and beta builds, without proper difficulty implementations and feature coding. A complete version DOES exist, but it wasn’t released due to legal issues between Nintendo and the developer, Argonaut Games. That, however, seems to be taken care of, as this will be the first time games can experience the TRUE Star Fox 2.

With other games on the system such as Secret of Mana and Earthbound fetching quite steep prices online, this is an absolute bargain and must-have for any lover of Nintendo’s 16-bit answer to the Sega Genesis. The console will be released on September 29th for $79.99, and Nintendo has stated that they will make “significantly more” units compared to the NES Classic. As someone that absolutely wants this, THANK YOU GOD!

With it being E3 season once more, plenty of companies are showing trailers of upcoming games, both from established franchises and budding IP’s. During Ubisoft’s press conference, a trailer was shown for the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Origins, which looks to be set in Ancient Egypt.

Now I’m not much of an Assassin’s Creed fan, having only put a few hours into AC3 recently, but the idea of assassins during the era of pharaohs and when the pyramids were being built has a lot of potential. Perhaps the assassins helped design some of the booby traps that pyramids have to defend against grave robbers?

Assassin’s Creed has had plenty of interesting settings for their games, ranging from Italy in the 1500’s, to the American Revolution and even during the golden age of piracy. So what other settings could Assassin’s Creed tackle?

Let me just say this right now: I’m not a fan of Assassin’s Creed. I have no context to any villains, themes, or settings the games have. Maybe some of these have already been done, who knows? If I get something wrong or miss a point with something, don’t bite my head off. Please.

5. Feudal Japan

Yeah, I’m getting the obvious one out of the way. When people think of assassins, they more than likely think of Japan’s stealthy killers. The ninja came to be after some people decided they were tired of being oppressed by the samurai, but since they knew that fighting one head on was suicide, they resorted to stealth and other tactics to get the job done.

This would be a perfect set-up for Assassin’s Creed, though it’s more than likely to be wishful thinking, as I believe the director for the series has stated that they will not do a ninja setting. Still, one can dream, right?

4. The Wild West

Assassins in the old west? Hey, if Assassin’s Creed can work with pirates, why not outlaws? With horses, carriages, saloons, and all other kinds of placesettings of the time, it could be pretty fun to see an assassin work their way through the chaos that was the untamed land of that time. Perhaps a Templar (the main baddies of the series) is the most notorious outlaw in the west, with a huge posse and plenty of firepower to boot? The idea’s are there, just gotta flesh them out.

3. World War II

So aside from the obvious mission of assassinating Hitler, why would I want to see an assassin in the second World War? Actually, I’d like to see how an assassin would deal with more modern weaponry such as machine guns, tanks, and mortar shells. The most Assassin’s Creed has ever had are flintlock weapons in 3 during the American Revolution, so seeing an assassin going through No Man’s Land, ducking into trenches and slicing his way through countless Nazi’s would be something I’d like to see.

2. The American Civil War

Now bear with me on this, because I have an interesting idea. Instead of simply being a Union Soldier, why not have two separate storylines: one where you help the North, and one where you help the South?

Perhaps the character is born and raised in the South, and they feel that the Confederacy had the right idea and should’ve won the war. During missions, you could either do what you’re told to help the Union, or you could sabotage the Union and help the Confederacy. Depending on your actions, you could potentially change history so that the South won the war. Hell, get some historical analysts in to say what the world would become.

1. The Cold War

I know what you’re thinking: hasn’t Metal Gear covered this enough? While it’s true that the Cold War setting was handled pretty effectively in the series (especially with Snake Eater,) Assassin’s Creed could also potentially knock it out of the park.

With the CIA and KGB handling covert missions and black ops during that era to ensure that America and the USSR would be the dominant nuclear superpower, perhaps an assassin is in the ranks of one of those groups? You could take the same idea I have with the Civil War and apply it here as well: Either be a CIA agent a keep America on top, or be a KGB spy intent on spreading the glory of Mother Russia.

Those are my suggestions for settings Assassin’s Creed can tackle. Do you have any other suggestions? Do you agree, disagree, could possibly clean up some of my ramblings? Let me know in the comments!